UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT
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<strong>UNESCO</strong> <strong>SCIENCE</strong> <strong>REPORT</strong><br />
In 2014, the government responded to several of the report’s<br />
recommendations through the release of its Comprehensive<br />
International Education Strategy. For instance, the government<br />
assigned CAN$ 5 million per year to addressing the first<br />
objective of doubling the number of students; it also<br />
highlighted the need to focus resources and efforts on<br />
priority markets aligned with Canada’s Global Markets Action<br />
Plan, namely Brazil, China, India, Mexico, North Africa and the<br />
Middle East and Viet Nam.<br />
In June 2014, two advocacy groups, the Council of Chief<br />
Executives and the Canadian International Council, argued in<br />
their joint report that one of the reasons why Canada – with<br />
120 000 international students – trailed countries such as the<br />
UK (427 000) and Australia (almost 250 000) was the lack of a<br />
unified brand to promote itself (Simon, 2014).<br />
Their report noted that Canada was the only developed<br />
country without a national ministry of education. Using 2011<br />
<strong>UNESCO</strong> rankings of international students per country,<br />
the report underscored Canada’s eighth place ranking. Its<br />
ability to attract students from China, the biggest source of<br />
foreign students, was dismal, it noted, at only 3.8%. The report<br />
proposed that Canada create a new organization to brand<br />
international education as being central to both domestic and<br />
foreign policy, which would be known as Education Canada.<br />
Eight out of ten universities seek high-quality partnerships<br />
Universities across Canada are taking a more strategic<br />
approach to internationalization. According to a recent<br />
survey, Canadian universities are deeply committed to<br />
internationalization. Fully 95% identify it as part of their<br />
strategic planning and 82% view it as one of their top<br />
five priorities; 89% of respondents say that the pace of<br />
internationalization on their campuses has accelerated<br />
(either greatly or somewhat) during the past three years<br />
(AUCC, 2014).<br />
The commitment of universities to internationalization<br />
is also becoming more sophisticated. For example, the<br />
pursuit of high-quality partnerships is now a priority for<br />
79% of institutions. Evaluation is also growing: today, 59%<br />
of Canadian universities track the implementation of their<br />
internationalization strategies within their quality assessment<br />
and assurance procedures and just over three-fifths assess<br />
their success in supporting international students.<br />
The most common top priority for internationalization is<br />
undergraduate student recruitment, identified by 45%<br />
universities as being their highest priority and by 70% as<br />
figuring among their top five priorities. The next top-rated<br />
priorities are to pursue strategic partnerships with universities<br />
overseas and to expand international academic research<br />
collaboration.<br />
With regard to Canadian education abroad, more than 80%<br />
of universities which responded to the survey offer a degree<br />
or certificate programme abroad with international partners<br />
and 97% offer opportunities for Canadian students to do<br />
academic coursework abroad. However, outbound student<br />
mobility remains low: just 3.1% of full-time undergraduates<br />
(about 25 000) had an international experience in 2012–2013<br />
and only 2.6% had chalked up a for-credit experience abroad<br />
(up slightly from 2.2% in 2006). Cost and inflexible curricular<br />
or credit transfer policies are perceived as being major<br />
barriers to greater student participation.<br />
Not surprisingly, China is overwhelmingly the top focus<br />
for almost all the efforts by Canadian universities to<br />
internationalize their institutions. China has become Canada’s<br />
third-biggest partner in terms of joint scientific authorship<br />
(Figure 4.5).<br />
As for Canadian students themselves, their preferred<br />
destinations for an overseas experience remain the traditional<br />
English-speaking and major Western European nations, despite<br />
their universities’ geographical focus on developing powers.<br />
FOSTERING AN INNOVATION CULTURE<br />
New programmes and a facelift for others<br />
The federal budget of 2014 contains a major new funding<br />
programme called the Canada First Research Excellence Fund<br />
(CFREF). In announcing the federal strategy for STI in 2014,<br />
the prime minister also launched the competition for this new<br />
programme.<br />
Pegged at CAN$ 50 million for the first year (2015–2016),<br />
CFREF is designed to drive Canadian post-secondary<br />
institutions to excel globally in research areas that create<br />
long-term economic advantages for Canada. The fund joins<br />
programmes such as the Canada Excellence Research Chairs<br />
and the Canada Research Chairs. Once implemented, it will<br />
presumably contribute significantly to research across all<br />
disciplines. CFREF will be available to all post-secondary<br />
institutions on a competitive, peer-reviewed basis.<br />
The fund will be administered by the Social Sciences and<br />
Humanities Research Council of Canada, in collaboration with<br />
the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of<br />
Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. These<br />
three funding councils collaborate trilaterally on issues such<br />
as open access. Each is currently undergoing a transformation<br />
to centre it more on its core mission.<br />
The Canadian Institutes for Health Research have undergone a<br />
retooling of their own business model. Meanwhile, the Natural<br />
Sciences and Engineering Research Council has launched a<br />
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